Covid Wars I

 My lawn cutter, whom I regard as a friend, had tens of thousands of dollars discharged into his checking account by his employer a couple of years ago, when the firm changed its retirement benefits,  emptying his job-related 401K and destroying its tax-deferred status without informing him (adequately) of  the consequences.  It might have been an ESL problem.  E recently asked me to help him get the money back into a tax-deferred state after so long a time.  I'm no expert but I suggested using the money in an annual Roth IRA purchase, to restore shielding the money again over time, year after year.

I asked for and received Mutual Fund forms and information for opening an IRA and last weekend, I spent an hour on my porch with E, sitting bent over a Little Tykes table as we pored over the forms and prospectuses in close proximity.  At the end of the far-ranging discussion, I happened to ask if he was vaccinated.  I was stunned when E said, "No."

I was also a little angry, because I had visions of becoming a breakthrough case of infection because of my lengthy close exposure to him even though I am fully vaccinated and it was outdoors.  If I had known he wasn't vaccinated at the outset of the hour, I would have worn a mask.  I told him he could probably throw out the beneficiary forms made out to his children as, because of the virulent Delta variant, he could be dead by the end of next week.  He said that variant was somewhere "out west" and not around here.  I assured him that wasn't necessarily true and that it was highly transmissible and well as being very deadly.  99% of all Covid deaths currently were of unvaccinated people, so without sufficient time to file and publish purchase forms, his estranged wife would get it all.

E said he would get vaccinated that week.  We'll see.